E-reader company Kobo is expanding to South Africa and hopes to make up 50 percent of the country’s small ebook market within a year, competing against Amazon’s Kindle.

Ebook retailer Kobo announced its first African launch Tuesday evening: The company is partnering with South African retail chain Pick n Pay to sell the Kobo Touch e-reader and ebooks. Kobo promises local content available in Afrikaans and English.

The Kobo Touch will retail for 995 rand (USD $114). Amazon ships the Kindle to South Africa and it is also available in some retail stores there. The country’s ebook market is estimated to make up less than 1.5 percent of the total books market.

Pick n Pay, which also sells iPads, operates 847 stores in South Africa and 94 stores in other southern African countries like Botswana and Namibia, though the Kobo partnership is limited for now to its South African stores and will roll out among those gradually: “Pick n Pay’s general merchandise manager Paula Vieira said that the Kobo Touch would be available in 41 stores within a few days, expanding to 71 within a few weeks,” South African books website Books Live reported from the launch, with the Touch in “the majority” of the chain’s stores “within months.”

Books Live also reports that Kobo business development VP Todd Humphrey “said the company wants to own 50 percent of the SA ebook market within one year.”

First Edition Design Publishing is the world’s largest eBook and POD (Print On Demand) book distributor. Ranked first in the industry, First Edition Design Publishing converts and formats manuscripts for every type of platform (e-reader). They submit Fiction, Non-Fiction, Academic and Children’s Books to Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Noble, Sony, Google, Kobo, Diesel, 3M, Ingram, Baker and Taylor, Nielsen, EBSCO, and over 100,000 additional on-line locations including retailers, libraries, schools, colleges and universities. The company’s POD division creates printed books and makes them available worldwide through their distribution network. First Edition Design Publishing is a licensed and approved Aggregator and holds licenses with Apple and Microsoft.

Long feared on death’s door, college bookstores have been given a new lease on life — credit textbook rentals.

The nation’s brick-and-mortar college bookstores have been struggling to compete with online retailers. Their answer to e-books is an alliance with former rivals: textbook rental companies, such as CampusBookRentals.com,a major driver of the movement that offers kiosks within stores themselves.

Auburn, UConn, Wake Forest and dozens of other university bookstores offer rental options to students.

Bill Simpson, president of the UConn Co-op bookstore, said the system allows students to spend less money on textbooks overall while the store is able to rent the textbooks many times before they leave the store’s inventory. Many large textbooks cost well over $100 but can be rented for about 33% to 55% less, according to the National Association of College Stores (NACS).

“You get to sell the book for less to the student, and we get paid more than if we had sold it directly to the student, so it’s a good deal for both of us,” Simpson said.

The NACS estimated that textbook rentals have saved students a total of $300 million this year.

In a recent survey, students estimated that they spent an average of $655 on textbooks this year, down from $702 four years ago.

Alternatives to paying the full price of a new textbook include buying used books and later selling them back to the store.

Textbook-industry analyst Jeff Cohen said that the popularity of in-store textbook rentals has been growing among students because of the initial cheap cost.

“Students have always wanted to have the lowest upfront cost,” Cohen said. “If a book is more expensive to buy but you’re going to get more value at the end of the semester, students will still rent” because they’re initially getting a cheaper price.

NACS representative Charles Schmidt said that students are drawn to renting because it is more risk-averse than buying a used textbook and later hoping to sell the book back at a good price.

“It’s kind of like buying a house vs. renting,” Schmidt said. “With the rental, they don’t have to … lay down 100 dollars for a new book and wait a semester and hope to get 50 back.”

Students have been able to rent textbooks online for a number of years, but in-store textbook rentals have only recently caught on. Touch-screen kiosks also enhance the experience for students.

The NACS said that nearly all of its 3,000 members will provide in-store textbook rentals this year, up from only 300 locations in the fall of 2009.

First Edition Design Publishing is the world’s largest eBook and POD (Print On Demand) book distributor. Ranked first in the industry, First Edition Design Publishing converts and formats manuscripts for every type of platform (e-reader). They submit Fiction, Non-Fiction, Academic and Children’s Books to Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Noble, Sony, Google, Kobo, Diesel, 3M, Ingram, Baker and Taylor, Nielsen, EBSCO, and over 100,000 additional on-line locations including retailers, libraries, schools, colleges and universities. The company’s POD division creates printed books and makes them available worldwide through their distribution network. First Edition Design Publishing is a licensed and approved Aggregator and holds licenses with Apple and Microsoft.

The online retailer Amazon charges publishers a UK tax rate despite having a tax dispensation because it is based in Luxembourg.

Amazon is making British publishers pay 20 per cent VAT on ebook sales, despite their true VAT cost for UK ebook sales being closer to 3 per cent.

From 2006, the online retailer has been based in Luxembourg, where the company only has to pass 3 per cent VAT to the government for UK ebook sales. (There is no VAT on printed books in this country.) Despite this, Amazon starts negotiations with UK publishers on the basis that the UK VAT rate of 20 per cent must be lifted from the cost price.

The difference between the UK VAT levy imposed on publishers and the actual 3 per cent that Amazon pays amounts to an extra £1.38 of profit every time it sells a £10 ebook in the UK.

The company negotiates further discounts on top of the VAT subsidy, which in some cases can result in publishers receiving less than 10 per cent of the price paid by the online customer.

Richard Murphy, founder of the Tax Justice Network, told Sky News Luxembourg’s 3 per cent tax rate on ebooks is being taken advantage of by Amazon.

“Luxembourg has this low VAT level to make publishing more accessible – and although Amazon is exploiting this, it is not passing it on to the industry.”

Amazon said: “Our goal is to make it easy for readers to discover and read the books they love by expanding access to millions of books in both digital and print.

“We’ve been able to do this by focusing on innovation, as exemplified by Kindle, and by offering customers the widest selection at the best possible prices and service.”

A publisher, who refused to be named said: “These are not pleasant people to do business with,” one senior publishing executive said. “They have no compunction in shutting down the buy button on their site on our titles if we step out of line,” a practice that can be carried out in seconds.

Amazon holds huge power in the digital publishing market, selling nine out of ten ebooks in the UK.

Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

About First Edition Design Publishing:

First Edition Design Publishing is the world’s largest eBook and POD (Print On Demand) book distributor. Ranked first in the industry, First Edition Design Publishing converts and formats manuscripts for every type of platform (e-reader). They submit Fiction, Non-Fiction, Academic and Children’s Books to Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Noble, Sony, Google, Kobo, Diesel, 3M, Ingram, Baker and Taylor, Nielsen, EBSCO, and over 100,000 additional on-line locations including retailers, libraries, schools, colleges and universities. The company’s POD division creates printed books and makes them available worldwide through their distribution network. First Edition Design Publishing is a licensed and approved Aggregator and holds licenses with Apple and Microsoft.

Amazon Announces Whispercast for Kindle–A Free Self-Service Tool for Schools and Businesses to Manage Large Deployments of Kindles and Support Purchase and Distribution of Kindle Books and Documents Across Kindle E-Readers, Kindle Fires and Free Kindle Reading Apps

Whispercast will also include support for “bring your own device” programs for students and employees wanting to add their own devices to a Whispercast account, and in the coming months the ability to support distribution of applications from the Amazon Appstore for Android

“Hundreds of thousands of students around the world are already reading on Kindle,” said Dave Limp, Vice President, Amazon Kindle. “Today, we are announcing Whispercast, a free, scalable solution for school and business administrators to centrally manage thousands of Kindles and wirelessly distribute Kindle books as well as their own documents to their users. Organizations can also design bring-your-own-device programs at school or work using personally-owned Kindles, Kindle Fires, and other tablets using the free Kindle reading applications for receiving content.”

Whispercast for Schools

gives teachers and educators access to millions of Kindle books, including best sellers and free classics, they can easily purchase and distribute to develop educational programs for every age group and level. And with Kindle books students no longer need to carry heavy textbooks. Kindle devices can also help meet the individual needs of students with features such as adjustable font sizes, line spacing, built-in dictionaries and the ability to add and share their own notes and highlights. Whispercast support for Kindle Fire, Kindle Fire HD and the free Kindle reading apps on iOS, Android, PC and Mac gives students the ability to explore and learn with full-color Kindle books, including interactive children’s books and websites. Schools can also register and seamlessly manage the settings on all their Kindles, including adding password protection, centrally configuring wireless connectivity to their organizations’ private networks and restricting individual purchases.

“We have been using Kindles in our schools for two and half years, and our students are more enthusiastic than ever about reading and studying,” said Keith Mastroides, Principal at Clearwater High School. “We started with 2,000 Kindle e-readers at our school and the program has been so successful that we have expanded it beyond our school and now more than 122 schools in the district are using Kindles. Whispercast gives us the ability to better streamline the process to manage our Kindles and content, so we can continue to grow the program.”

Whispercast for Business

Whispercast makes it easy for business owners to manage and deploy fleets of Kindle e-readers and tablets as a way to support employee productivity or customer marketing initiatives. Additionally, Whispercast makes it easy to centrally distribute PDFs and other business documents such as a conference agenda or training materials to employees or customers. With “bring your own device” support businesses will be able to distribute documents and Kindle books to personally-owned Kindles and other devices with access to free Kindle reading applications. Businesses will also be able to use Whispercast to purchase and distribute applications from the Amazon Appstore for Kindle Fires in the coming months.

“With Whispercast, our professional sales representatives can focus on helping our clients choose the medical information they want on their Kindle devices,” said Jim Donohue, Managing Director, Global Clinical Reference, Elsevier. “Rather than dealing with the logistics of shipping, managing and replacing physical books, hospitals and life sciences companies can now use Whispercast to immediately procure and distribute select Elsevier eBooks to their clinicians, researchers and staff.”

Whispercast for Non-Profit Organizations

Even nonprofit organizations with remote locations around the world have experienced the benefits of Whispercast. “Over the past year, Worldreader has trialed Whispercast to wirelessly deliver over 200,000 e-books to children in sub-Saharan Africa,” said David Risher, President of the literacy charity Worldreader. “With Whispercast, we are helping kids read more than ever. Kids no longer have to wait for a new book to be shipped. It is simply delivered electronically and waiting for them to start reading.”

Whispercast Features

Easily manage fleets of Kindles

With Whispercast, administrators can register and assign users to all of their organizations’ Kindle devices at once, creating personalized Kindle experiences for each student or employee.

Support for “bring your own device”

With support for personal devices, organizations can invite employees, students, customers and partners to receive content from the organization on their Kindles.

Create user groups

Whispercast gives administrators the ability to assign users into one or more groups, such as specific class, grade level or corporate department. User groups make it easier to purchase and distribute content for each group’s unique needs.

Control device settings, such as Wi-Fi and password protection

Schools and businesses can configure device settings across all their Kindles, including configuring wireless connectivity to private networks for a simple and secure user experience as well as restricting web access and purchases.

Wirelessly distribute Kindle books, documents and applications

Whispercast makes it easy for organizations to centrally distribute Kindle books as well as documents on an individual basis. In the coming months, Whispercast administrators will be able to purchase and send Kindle Fire applications. Additionally, during the purchase process organizations will be able to select which content should be assigned to specific user groups they have created.

Support for free Kindle reading apps on iOS, Android, and other devices

Schools and businesses can purchase and send Kindle books and distribute documents to devices using any of the free Kindle reading apps, including iPads, iPhones, Android phones and tablets, PCs and Macs.

Support for centralized procurement

Organizations can efficiently purchase Kindle devices and content through a single payment method, including purchase orders, as well as Amazon gift cards or credit cards.

First Edition Design Publishing is the world’s largest eBook and POD (Print On Demand) book distributor. Ranked first in the industry, First Edition Design Publishing converts and formats manuscripts for every type of platform (e-reader). They submit Fiction, Non-Fiction, Academic and Children’s Books to Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Noble, Sony, Google, Kobo, Diesel, 3M, Ingram, Baker and Taylor, Nielsen, EBSCO, and over 100,000 additional on-line locations including retailers, libraries, schools, colleges and universities. The company’s POD division creates printed books and makes them available worldwide through their distribution network. First Edition Design Publishing is a licensed and approved Aggregator and holds licenses with Apple and Microsoft.

The App Store is booming with fun and creative apps, ideal for keeping your kids entertained for hours. With Halloween just a few weeks away, here are a few apps for you to load on your smartphone to get your family in the Halloween spirit!

Scrap It: Halloween HD – FREE

Scrap It: Halloween HD is a free app, allowing you to upload photos and create a Halloween-themed e-scrapbook. You can pick through hundreds of photo effects and choose from stickers, text fonts and a variety of themed background images. Once you’re finished, you can preview your scrapbook as an image slideshow, or even upload it online to share with friends and family.

Halloween Card Creator – FREE

Halloween Card Creator allows you to create fun and spooky Halloween cards to share with your friends and family. Cards are easily customizable with fun graphics and background, and you can publish the final product online. For $0.99, you can upgrade the free version to include more clip art options.

Scary Sounds – FREE

Scary Sounds, a free app, lets you create your own haunted house of horror! You can choose from a sound bank of scary sounds, or even create a combination of sounds to loop. Sounds include growling, laugh, howl, screech, wicked witch laugh and wolves howling. Attach your smartphone to a speaker and create a spooky ambiance for your next Halloween party.

Carve a Pumpkin from Parents Magazine – FREE

Carve a Pumpkin allows your kids who want to try out carving a pumpkin before attempting the real thing. Your kids are able to pick from a library of crazy eye, nose and mouth shapes, or you can carve your own jack-o-lantern. It’s fun, interactive, and easy to use. Once your kid has finished, they can add their own message and share their creation online.

Great Halloween Recipes – $0.99

Great Halloween Recipes allows party hosts to discover new and tasty recipes to help you make the most of the Halloween theme. You can find many interesting treat ideas including appetizers, main entrees, mocktails and dessert ideas.

Great Halloween iBooks:

Franklin’s Halloween – iBookstore ($5.99) Franklin and his friends are excited about the upcoming Halloween costume party. With tricks and treats and a flying ghost, Franklin and his friends enjoy a night of mystery fun.

The Little Engine That Could Throw a Halloween Jamboree!– iBookstore ($0.99) The Little Engine That Could celebrates Halloween by throwing a jamboree full of fun games and contests.

Disney Princess: Sweet and Spooky Halloween – iBookstore ($3.99) It’s Halloween and the Disney Princesses are celebrating this sweet and spooky season. Cinderella carves pumpkins, Ariel dresses up in costume and Belle explores the creepy corners of the Beast’s castle.

First Edition Design Publishing is the world’s largest eBook and POD (Print On Demand) book distributor. Ranked first in the industry, First Edition Design Publishing converts and formats manuscripts for every type of platform (e-reader). They submit Fiction, Non-Fiction, Academic and Children’s Books to Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Noble, Sony, Google, Kobo, Diesel, 3M, Ingram, Baker and Taylor, Nielsen, EBSCO, and over 100,000 additional on-line locations including retailers, libraries, schools, colleges and universities. The company’s POD division creates printed books and makes them available worldwide through their distribution network. First Edition Design Publishing is a licensed and approved Aggregator and holds licenses with Apple and Microsoft.

First Edition Design Publishing is the world’s largest eBook and POD (Print On Demand) book distributor. Ranked first in the industry, First Edition Design Publishing converts and formats manuscripts for every type of platform (e-reader). They submit Fiction, Non-Fiction, Academic and Children’s Books to Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Noble, Sony, Google, Kobo, Diesel, 3M, Ingram, Baker and Taylor, Nielsen, EBSCO, and over 100,000 additional on-line locations including retailers, libraries, schools, colleges and universities. The company’s POD division creates printed books and makes them available worldwide through their distribution network. First Edition Design Publishing is a licensed and approved Aggregator and holds licenses with Apple and Microsoft.

First Edition Design Publishing is the world’s largest eBook and POD (Print On Demand) book distributor. Ranked first in the industry, First Edition Design Publishing converts and formats manuscripts for every type of platform (e-reader). They submit Fiction, Non-Fiction, Academic and Children’s Books to Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Noble, Sony, Google, Kobo, Diesel, 3M, Ingram, Baker and Taylor, Nielsen, EBSCO, and over 100,000 additional on-line locations including retailers, libraries, schools, colleges and universities. The company’s POD division creates printed books and makes them available worldwide through their distribution network. First Edition Design Publishing is a licensed and approved Aggregator and holds licenses with Apple and Microsoft.

Electronic books, which have sparked excited chatter for several years in the publishing world, are now gaining momentum among European readers, despite a late start compared to the US, industry insiders say.

The digital share of the book market in European countries still lags behind the United States but publishers at the Frankfurt Book Fair were upbeat about their recent uptake and future prospects.

Ebook reading devices only become available later in some European countries and ebook prices in others have been too high to entice readers away from their traditional bound rivals, they said.

Juergen Boos, the director of the five-day annual fair, has also suggested that a general attachment in Europe to the physical presence of the printed book and its value as a cultural object is holding the ebook back.

“It’s not to do with the range, the ebooks are there… it’s more a social phenomenon,” he said referring to Germany, ahead of the fair’s opening in this western German city.

Ebook sales in Germany have doubled this year but still only account for two percent of the overall book market, compared to 20 percent in the US, Gottfried Honnefelder, president of the German Booksellers’ and Publishers’ Association, told reporters here.

Britain, where Amazon launched its Kindle ebook reader in 2010, is further down the digital road, with consumer ebook sales making up about 13 percent of combined print and ebook sales in the first half of 2012, according to The Publishers Association.

“The penetration of ereading devices in the UK is very strong,” its chief executive Richard Mollet told AFP adding that British consumers were already digitally savvy from widely used online banking and online shopping.

“Ecommerce has come to Britain in a big way. The British consumer seems to have an affinity to digital technology and devices,” he said.

“It’s not because they love the physical book less, it’s just because they are able to embrace digital more,” he added.

Academic books is one field in Germany to have embraced the ebook earlier, driven by demands from libraries for titles to be digitised, and is not far behind the US market, an academic publisher said here.

“The US might be, say one year ahead, maybe two, I can’t say exactly, but it’s not like it’s a bright day in the US and dark night on the continent of Europe,” Karlheinz Hoefner, sales director of Oldenbourg Verlag said, referring to academic publishing.

The company, founded in 1858 and based in Munich and Berlin, has been producing ebooks for four years, he said, and “not just the odd title somewhere in the system but ebooks in rather critical mass.”

But print academic books still roughly account for 80 percent of their titles, he said.

In the Netherlands, ebooks are also expected to double to three percent of the market in 2012, a trend predicted to continue next year, said Erik-Jan Bulthuis from distributing company cb.

“So I think the market share is going very fast at the moment,” he said.

Language had played a part in ebook development compared to the US, with a potential market of only 20-25 million Dutch speakers globally, and 17,000 titles in Dutch currently available, he said.

One reason why ebooks have been more eagerly embraced in the US is that many Americans live in areas without a local book shop nearby, Kornelia Holzhausen, head of digital media at Germany’s Piper Verlag publishers said.

Germany also has a policy of fixed prices for books, considering them to be a “cultural good”, meaning ebooks could not be marketed as price aggressively as in Britain or the US, she said.

“Amazon does not have the possibility in the German market to use price as a tool which may be one of the reasons as well why the market is not exploding as fast,” she said.

Ebooks are however about 20 to 30 percent cheaper than printed books in Germany, she said adding she expected the ebook share of the market to have jumped to five percent by the end of the year.

She said that while she did not believe ebooks would ever hold the complete market, they were proving much more popular in some genres than others and would continue to generate revenue, meaning publishers had to embrace them.

First Edition Design Publishing is the world’s largest eBook and POD (Print On Demand) book distributor. Ranked first in the industry, First Edition Design Publishing converts and formats manuscripts for every type of platform (e-reader). They submit Fiction, Non-Fiction, Academic and Children’s Books to Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Noble, Sony, Google, Kobo, Diesel, 3M, Ingram, Baker and Taylor, Nielsen, EBSCO, and over 100,000 additional on-line locations including retailers, libraries, schools, colleges and universities. The company’s POD division creates printed books and makes them available worldwide through their distribution network. First Edition Design Publishing is a licensed and approved Aggregator and holds licenses with Apple and Microsoft.

Surging ebook sales now represent an estimated 16.3% of the overall book market in Canada, a figure that caught even some industry watchers by surprise.

A new report by the non-profit industry group BookNet Canada finds more and more people are buying ebooks, and when they do purchase hardcovers and paperbacks they are increasingly getting them outside of conventional book stores.

The trends are outlined in a first-of-its-kind report by BookNet, which is based on several consumer surveys conducted over the first half of the year. The results are considered accurate within 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

“We were a little taken aback — even though we are in the industry and on the technology side of the industry — at just the sheer quantity of the shift in behavior in regards to digital and online (shopping),” said BookNet CEO Noah Genner.

“We all knew it was happening … but just the sheer volume and the amount of change that’s happened in the last couple of years is a big surprise.”

The report suggests one in three Canadians is a regular book buyer and purchases an average of 2.8 titles per month.

While ebook sales are growing, print sales still dominate, with paperbacks representing an estimated 56.7 per cent of the market and hardcovers making up 23.6 per cent.

Only seven per cent of readers said they bought both ebooks and print books, but they bought more titles overall — an average of 4.5 per month.

When it came to where purchases were made, only about a third were in book stores. About 27.5 per cent of purchases were online and about 30 per cent were at non-book retailers, including big box stores and grocery stores.

“The other big surprise (in the research) was just how much book buying was done as if it were another consumer good,” Genner said.

“We were quite surprised to see how many books were bought with grocery items, with consumer goods and different category lines.”

While Genner said the average number of books purchased per buyer has stayed about the same over recent years, the average price is creeping downward.

The overall average price was $12.84. The average ebook was $7.44, the average hardcover was $19.09 and the average paperback was $12.18.

While ebook sales still lag behind hardcover sales in Canada by about seven per cent, the trend is further along south of the border.

The Association of American Publishers reported earlier this year that ebooks sales had surpassed hardcovers and were within about six percentage points of paper-book tallies.

Genner attributed the higher ebook sales in the United States to the fact that the market went digital earlier. He also pointed to the success of Amazon and its Kindle e-reader and competition from other ebook retailers — including Barnes and Noble, which doesn’t operate in Canada — that pushed digital sales even higher.

SOURCE: Canadian Press – October 10, 2012

About First Edition Design Publishing:

First Edition Design Publishing is the world’s largest eBook and POD (Print On Demand) book distributor. Ranked first in the industry, First Edition Design Publishing converts and formats manuscripts for every type of platform (e-reader). They submit Fiction, Non-Fiction, Academic and Children’s Books to Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Noble, Sony, Google, Kobo, Diesel, 3M, Ingram, Baker and Taylor, Nielsen, EBSCO, and over 100,000 additional on-line locations including retailers, libraries, schools, colleges and universities. The company’s POD division creates printed books and makes them available worldwide through their distribution network. First Edition Design Publishing is a licensed and approved Aggregator and holds licenses with Apple and Microsoft.

Are you ready to take your book collection digital and buy your first e-book reader? We’re here to help. We break down the best e-readers from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and others.

If you’re looking for a new e-reader, whether you’re upgrading or buying your first device, you’ll find there are a lot of options. There are four big names in the e-book reader market and they each offer a range of e-readers to suit different budgets and requirements. There’s a reason these companies are dominating the e-reader scene, so if you want quality, great features, and reasonable prices, there’s no need to look beyond them.

We are going to focus on dedicated E Ink devices for reading e-books here, so we won’t delve into full-fledged tablets. We’ll also ignore discontinued lines, although there are bargains to be had out there in the secondhand market. Let’s take a look at the options and then we’ll compare at the end.

Barnes & Noble Nook

The popular Nook from Barnes & Noble comes in two flavors. There’s the Barnes & Noble Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight, and the Barnes & Noble Nook Simple Touch Reader.

For the basic Reader you’ll need to shell out $100. It has an E Ink display, which is easy to read, even in direct sunlight. It also has a 6-inch touchscreen and can hold up to 1,000 books, magazines, or newspapers. A single charge will last you up to two months based on an average of 30 minutes reading per day.

The GlowLight version is $20 more at $120. It is essentially the same, but it has a backlit touchscreen so that you can read in the dark. The GlowLight reduces the battery life to a, still respectable, one month. That’s also based on an average of 30 minutes reading per day.

Both devices have a microSD card slot so you can expand memory by up to 32GB. That’s a lot of books.

Amazon Kindle

A perfect marriage of content and hardware has allowed the Kindle range to really drive the widespread adoption of e-readers. You have quite a few choices if you want to buy an e-reader from Amazon. There’s the basic Kindle, the Kindle Keyboard 3G, the Kindle DX, the Kindle Paperwhite, and the Kindle Paperwhite 3G.

At just $70, the basic Kindle is a steal. It has a 6-inch e-ink display that’s easy to read, even in direct sunlight; it can hold up to 1,000 books, magazines, or newspapers; and a single charge will last you up to one month based on an average of 30 minutes reading per day.

The Kindle Keyboard 3G costs $140 and it adds a physical keyboard into the mix and 3G connectivity. It also has double the storage of the basic Kindle and it boasts stereo speakers. A single charge will last you up to two months based on an average of 30 minutes reading per day. It is also larger and heavier.

For anyone seeking something even bigger, there’s the Kindle DX. It has a 9.7-inch screen, free 3G, stereo speakers, 4GB of storage, and a physical keyboard. However, it costs a whopping $380 and battery life is just three weeks.

The Paperwhite is Amazon’s answer to the GlowLight Nook. It also allows you to read in the dark, but the screen is not backlit, instead there’s a light at the top. The basic Kindle Paperwhite is $120. It boasts an extremely sharp 6-inch touchscreen, can store over 1,000 books, and can also last up to two months on a single charge, once again, based on a half hour of daily reading.

The top of the range choice is the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite 3G which costs $180. It simply adds free 3G to the basic Kindle Paperwhite.

You can pay an extra $20 for any of the entries in the Kindle range in order to avoid any advertising. The special offers take the form of adverts on your screensaver and at the bottom of your home screen. There is no intrusion on your actual reading.

Kobo

It doesn’t have as big a name, but Kobo does offer a good e-reader range. There’s the Kobo Mini, the Kobo Glo, and the Kobo Touch.

The Kobo Mini costs $80. It has a 5-inch e-ink touchscreen. It can store 1,000 books and the battery can also last up to one month, but no usage estimates in terms of daily reading are provided. The one month battery claim is also contradicted in the Kobo FAQ which says two weeks.

As you might expect, the Kobo Glo allows you to read in the dark and it costs $130. It has a 6-inch E Ink touchscreen, can also hold around 1,000 books, and the battery will give you 55 hours of continuous use with the light on.

The Kobo Touch also costs $130, although you’ll find it discounted in a lot of places. It has a 6-inch E Ink touchscreen. It has the standard 2GB storage which is room for up to 1,000 books. The battery life is up to one month.

The Kobo Glo and the Kobo Touch also have microSD card slots so you can expand the storage by up to 32GB.

Sony Reader

You current options are the Sony Reader PRST2HBC and the Sony Reader PRST2RC. As far as we can make out both devices are the same except for the color options. The Sony Reader PRST2HBC is standard grey/black while the PRST2RC comes in white or red.

he Sony Reader costs $130. It has a 6-inch E Ink touchscreen. There is just 1.3GB internal memory, but there is a microSD card slot so you can expand storage up to 32GB. It can also last up to two months on a single charge, once again, based on a half hour of daily reading.

What to buy?

If low price is your prime concern then you can’t beat the basic Kindle at $70. We’d give second place to the Barnes & Noble Nook Simple Touch Reader at $100. You could also consider the Kobo Mini at $80 but it has a smaller screen and poorer battery life.

If you want to be able to read in the dark then it’s a head-to-head between the Barnes & Noble Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight at $140 and the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite at $120. The Nook has expandable memory, but the Kindle has a sharper screen, and coupled with the lower price, it edges this one. The Kobo Glo could also be worth a look at $130 as it boasts superior battery life.

The presence of 3G, which will allow you to connect to a mobile network and download books even when you are out and about, is only available on selected Kindles now. Is it worth the premium? We think probably not. Most people will be happy to load up books using Wi-Fi and won’t feel the need to connect all the time.

As with any expensive purchase, we would strongly recommend that you try these out before you buy. The feel of an e-reader is very important. If you want something light then the Kobo Mini and the Sony Reader are actually the lightest, closely followed by the basic Kindle. The sharpest screen on the market is the Kindle Paperwhite at 212 ppi.

Ultimately, the Barnes & Noble Nook and the Amazon Kindle range get our strongest recommendation. You are unlikely to be disappointed with either.

SOURCE: www.digitaltrends.com BY: Simon Hill

About First Edition Design Publishing:

First Edition Design Publishing is the world’s largest eBook and POD (Print On Demand) book distributor. Ranked first in the industry, First Edition Design Publishing converts and formats manuscripts for every type of platform (e-reader). They submit Fiction, Non-Fiction, Academic and Children’s Books to Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Noble, Sony, Google, Kobo, Diesel, 3M, Ingram, Baker and Taylor, Nielsen, EBSCO, and over 100,000 additional on-line locations including retailers, libraries, schools, colleges and universities. The company’s POD division creates printed books and makes them available worldwide through their distribution network. First Edition Design Publishing is a licensed and approved Aggregator and holds licenses with Apple and Microsoft.